This Day in 1913 in The Record: Jan. 20, 1913

Monday, Jan. 20, 1913. Former Troy mayor Daniel E. Conway brings his feud with county Democratic leader Joseph J. Murphy into the open with a letter to The Record, accusing Murphy of having "let loose the dogs of war" and promising to fight for his own rights as a party leader.

Conway has had a contentious history in his own party. He split from the Democrats to form a "Progressive Democratic" party in 1899, winning two terms as mayor with heavy Republican support. He's been a "regular" Democrat since 1905, but still commands a faction for whom he demands a share of political patronage (i.e. government jobs) on the city, county and state levels.

Murphy is the son of the late Edward Murphy jr., a former U.S. Senator and longtime adversary of the Conway faction, and became county leader after his father's death in 1911. He's credited with uniting the city's Democratic factions behind Cornelius F. Burns's successful mayoral campaign that year, but the competition for patronage has reopened the breach between the Murphy and Conway factions.

The factional conflict heated up this month after Conway went over Murphy's head to win a state highway department job for his former public safety commissioner, Mark J. Coyle. In apparent reprisal, Murphy has arranged for two Conway men, County Board of Elections clerk William E. Conway and Deputy Sheriff Patrick Burns, to lose their jobs. By doing so, Conway writes today, "Joseph Murphy has unfurled the political battle flags ... and has vowed vengeance and ruin upon all the followers of former Mayor Conway, and upon all who do not unto him and his 'crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, that thrift may follow fawning'" attitude.

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Conway sees no reason for Murphy to object to Coyle's appointment, noting that Murphy himself had once lobbied Mayor Burns to give Coyle back his old job as public safety commissioner, and had recommended Coyle for state jobs in the past. The only reason Murphy complains now, Conway claims, is because Murphy had not lobbied for Coyle this time.

The former mayor insists that "As state committeeman of the Democratic party, and as a Democrat, I claim the right to aid my friends who are Democrats, and to secure for them whatever positions and offices I can,...and shall always maintain that right, which is the right of every citizen."

As for Murphy, "He is as yet a novice in political life, he has won his spurs not by actual service but because of his father's name, [and] he has already demonstrated that he is unsafe to be trusted with power or authority."